Scars Don't Fade
by KHGiggle
Summary: RED finally returns home after the debacle in Rapture. However some bring home souvenirs on their bodies.


The first thing Medic did upon stepping foot on base was tend to his doves. He'd left plenty of food for them, and Ms. Pauling had stated she'd been taking care of them, but he was still worried about how long they'd been without him.

They were still in the dove coach. Medic opened it and cooed to them. "How are you doing? I'm sorry I had to leave you for so long. I honestly wasn't expecting it." He took out Archimedes and quickly studied him. He appeared healthy and well fed, which bode well for the others.

Someone knocked at the door. Medic had told the certain members of RED to come by for examinations. Looks like they'd actually listened to him. It was nice he wouldn't have to go looking for them. He opened the door and blinked. "Scout?"

Medic was going to be honest, even with her injury he hadn't expected Scout to come by so soon. She'd managed to change back into one of her uniforms and was so pale that Medic checked her eyes to make sure she hadn't reactivated her enhancements. "You know, normally I don't care, but are you sure you're ready for your surgery?"

"No," admitted Scout. "But my shoulder hurts, and I want to get this over and done with."

Medic shrugged. "Fair enough. Let me put Archimedes away." While he didn't mind having his birds out, he didn't want Archimedes playing in Scout's blood. It might actually be bad for him. Archimedes wasn't happy about it, but he'd have to live with it. Medic noticed that Scout had walked in and quickly locked the door, ignoring Scout's flinch. "All right, before the surgery, I'd like to take a look at your other injuries to be sure they healed correctly before doing an X-ray so I'll know where the needle is exactly."

Scout nodded, shifted for a moment, and slowly started removing her clothes. She didn't use her right arm at all, but it looked like something invisible was tugging at her clothes. Must be her telekinesis. It was actually pretty interesting to watch and Medic wondered if he'd be seeing more of it now that Scout had no reason to hide it.

Eventually, Scout had disrobed down to her underwear, revealing all sorts of scars that Medic was sure were new. Medic started looking them over, noting bullet wounds, stab wounds, burns, and even a couple of other scars that suggested she'd been impaled two additional times in addition to the one he'd witnessed and repaired back in Rapture. "I have scar cream to help soften the scars, but I don't have much. I did ask Ms. Pauling to put in an order for some more, but until then you'll have to stretch out a single jar."

Scout nodded. "Okay."

"Now, it's time for the X-ray." He led her to the back, set the machine over her and took the picture.

The developed picture showed that besides the needle stuck in Scout's shoulder there was also a bullet in her abdomen. Honestly, he was expecting more. The first aid hypos must have pushed most of them out. "Good news. The only other foreign body is a bullet, and it's in a location where it can't damage anything, so we do not need to remove it."

Scout frowned in confusion. "We don't?"

"Well, not unless you want to, but it will be safer to leave it where it is."

Scout thought a moment. "Do I need to worry about lead poisoning?"

"No. You're not the first person to carry a bullet in their body. It doesn't cause any negative side effects unless it shifts…which I suppose is a possibility in your case." Medic thought. "Although we have a Respawn so you don't need to worry about that at this present moment…I'll let you decide."

Scout shook her head. "Not now. Maybe in the future, but not now."

Medic nodded. "Understood. You can put your pants and shoes back on for the operation. Let me grab the supplies."

Medic didn't need much: a scalpel, a syringe of lidocaine, a needle, and a magnet. Then he put on a splash shield and surgery coat. "Ready?"

Scout blinked at him. "I've never seen you wear that stuff before."

"I've never had a patient with toxic blood," countered Medic. Scout just nodded at that. Medic turned the ceiling mounted medibeam on and started drawing lidocaine into the syringe. "This is just a pain killer," he explained before carefully injecting her. She was really tense. "Now, lay back."

Medic rubbed a bit of iodine on the incision site before cutting Scout's shoulder open. Scout watched with wide eyes, her free hand tightly gripping the surgical table.. Medic carefully inserted the needle until it hit the other needle in Scout's arm. He put the magnet on the end of his needle and pulled both out. He tossed the tools into his rarely used biohazard waste container and squeezed the incision together until it was healed. "Done."

Scout blinked. "That's it?"

"Ja, honestly, the only reason I couldn't do it earlier was because I needed to avoid causing additional damage to your shoulder, which could increase your chances of developing arthritis in the joint when you get older." Medic paused. "Actually, you're probably already at an increased risk with how long you were running around, and arthritis can strike at any age so if you feel prolonged pain in that shoulder do not try to hide it. Alert me immediately."

"Right." Scout grabbed her shirt and put it back on, still treating her arm tenderly. "So, I can leave now?"

"Hold on." Medic grabbed one of the jars of scar cream and gave it to Scout. "Apply this to your scars twice a day, preferably in the morning and evening."

"Okay." Scout took a deep breath. "Okay. Thanks." And then she was gone so quickly that Medic wondered if she'd teleported for a moment.

Medic glanced out towards the waiting area and noticed Engineer was the only other person there. "Where are Heavy and Sniper?"

"Sniper went to his van, and Heavy went to get him," explained Engineer as he walked in. He pulled out some blueprints. "Should we go straight to talking about the Gunslinger or do you need to examine how I'm healing again?"

Medic looked Engineer over for a moment. "Let me just see how the amputation is healing." He quickly unwound the bandages around Engineer's stump, noted the color looked good, pressed down on it a bit to see if it caused Engineer any discomfort, decided that was enough, and put on some fresh bandages. "I believe you are fully healed, but a quick X-ray would be a good idea so we can plan for the prosthetic attachment."

The X-ray showed that along with the more obvious amputated parts, Engineer's wrist bones and the ends of his radius and ulna had been removed. "We might be able to recreate the ends of the bones to help connect the prosthetic. I imagine it would help with the support as well."

The two talked about requirements and limitations that had to be considered before the Gunslinger was built and attached. Medic's main concern was weight. A typical human hand weighed less than half a kilogram. This hand…would weigh considerably more no matter what sort of metal Engineer used.

"You'll need to make the prosthetic detachable," Medic finally concluded. "Anything that is permanently attached will have to be very light to avoid placing stress on the rest of the limb and possibly your body."

"The best metal for that would be titanium," muttered Engineer. "I do have a bit, but it'll be hard to work with…At least making it detachable should be easy enough." Engineer rolled up the blueprints. "Well, if that's everything, I'm gonna see if I can get started before supper. The sooner I finish, the sooner I can function normally again."

Medic nodded. "I'll check in on you in a few days." He considered holding the doors for Engineer, but decided it wouldn't be appreciated.

The waiting area now had Sniper and Heavy. Since Sniper was scowling and had his arms crossed, Medic called him in first. "This will be quick. I just need to look at the burn to make sure it's healed all right."

"It's already healed!"

"True, but I might need to give you a different prescription." Medic took Sniper's left arm and quickly examined the burn going over the back of it nearly to his shoulder. "Looks good. Let me see your chest."

Sniper wasn't happy but unbuttoned his shirt and lifted his undershirt to show the burns on his left side. They weren't as bad as the one on his arm, and were smaller. Sniper's arm had taken the brunt of the attack. "Do the burns feel painful?"

"No, just…tight."

Medic nodded. "That's normal. Scar tissue isn't as elastic as skin. I have some cream for that." Medic grabbed another of the jars he'd given to Scout. "Apply this to the burns twice a day, morning and evening, and it will soften the tissue and make it more supple. I'll be ordering more regularly, so don't worry about running out."

"Right, right." Sniper took the cream and left without even a thank you.

Medic crossed his arms as Heavy came in. "He's certainly grumpy. Where's your little shadow?"

Chantal had taken to following Heavy around whenever she could. It would be adorable if the adults weren't worried that she might try following him onto the battlefield.

"Heavy told Little Girl that Heavy has to work and she cannot come with him. Little Girl is coloring in Heavy's room to see how she will do on her own," explained Heavy.

"Is that what she's going to be doing during the day?" asked Medic.

Heavy shook his head. "Heavy has ordered textbooks. Will make lesson plan for Little Girl to follow during day."

Medic nodded. That made sense. "It sounds like that would work, although I have to wonder what it would look like on a college application. Now…I just need to see that injury from the drill."

Heavy took off his vest and shirt. Medic stubbornly ignored the fact that Heavy was shirtless and studied the wound. "You haven't experienced any weakness while lifting?"

Heavy frowned. "No. Why would I?"

"You might have lost a bit of muscle tissue. Just a bit. I honestly didn't think you would be affected, but I wanted to be sure. Have you felt it pulling when you try to move?"

Heavy shrugged. "Not sure. Heavy will have to wait for fight to be sure."

Fair enough. Medic grabbed another jar of scar cream and handed it to Heavy as he started redressing. "Put this on the scar twice a day to soften it. In your case, it might not be necessary, but it will be more effective while the tissue is still new so I would like to go ahead and have you start using it to be safe."

Heavy nodded. "Of course Doktor. Will there be anything else?"

Medic shook his head. "Nein. I've been looking over all of you for the past week and a half. Most of these examinations were a formality. Although if Scout or Engineer seem to be doing poorly would you let me know?"

Heavy nodded. "I will." He smiled at Medic. "Thank you Doktor."

Medic smiled back. "You're welcome."


End file.
